United States head coach Mauricio Pochettino has described Manchester City’s period of dominance as “a period of deception” following reports that the club was found guilty of most of the Premier League’s financial charges against it.
An independent commission is reported to have ruled against City on the majority of the 115 allegations, although the Premier League has not officially confirmed the outcome.
City have consistently rejected the accusations, while chairman Khaldoon Al Mubarak said on Saturday that he remained confident of establishing the club’s innocence.
Since their Abu Dhabi-backed takeover in 2008, City have collected numerous major honours, including Premier League titles and the Champions League.
Pochettino, who spent seven years managing Southampton, Tottenham and Chelsea in England, said the reported findings had damaged both City and the wider league.
“Whatever punishment, it’s impossible to turn back time,” Pochettino told reporters.
“It’s done a lot of damage. Many clubs followed the rules and some didn’t. It is a huge sadness. We get into a situation where what got celebrated wasn’t that real, what seemed good maybe wasn’t so good, what didn’t look good maybe was good but couldn’t be good because of what happened.
“We went through something where sporting fairness didn’t exist. So, how do you repair everything that was damaged because of that? If it’s true that all of the 114 rules were broken, we’ve lived through a period of deception.”
The allegations cover the period between 2009-10 and 2017-18, while City are also accused of failing to cooperate with Premier League inquiries from December 2018 to February 2023.
The club is expected to challenge any punishment imposed, with possible sanctions including a points deduction, expulsion from the Premier League or a substantial fine.
There have also been demands for City to be stripped of league titles won since 2008.
Pochettino recently argued that Chelsea should lose the 2016-17 Premier League title following historical rule breaches and that Tottenham, who finished second, should inherit it.
However, he admitted that determining an appropriate punishment for City would be difficult.
“What are they going to do? An economic punishment? Docking points? It’s really hard,” he said.
“If I remember being at Southampton, then Tottenham – I remember building the Tottenham Hotspur Stadium and not having the economic possibility of a transfer for 18 months.
“Tottenham was fighting for titles with those above us and every year in the top four, getting to the semi-finals of the Champions League without being able to do a transfer for 18 months, all because we needed to get used to the Premier League financial controls?
“They were so strict with us but also so lenient with others. Because of that, that’s why I say it’s all very strange.”
